Anyones House Central Air run 95% of the day

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Meast21

Well-Known Member
Not talking about grow room central air, I'm talking about entire house central Air.. My house is hot and from 11am til 11pm it will run 11.5 hours and be off for the other 30 mins, is this normal? Is this bad for the central air system??

Problem is my basement is warm and warm air rises to the main level. I got central air down there too on all the time and on 90 degree days its still 77 degrees down there with the central air running 95% of the time.
 
Boatguy

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
Meast21 said:
Not talking about grow room central air, I'm talking about entire house central Air.. My house is hot and from 11am til 11pm it will run 11.5 hours and be off for the other 30 mins, is this normal? Is this bad for the central air system??

Problem is my basement is warm and warm air rises to the main level. I got central air down there too on all the time and on 90 degree days its still 77 degrees down there with the central air running 95% of the time.
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Guessing your house is poorly insulated like mine. Put it on the list of things to do.
 
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Meast21

Well-Known Member
Boatguy said:
Guessing your house is poorly insulated like mine. Put it on the list of things to do.
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Yeah basement and attic... What do you insulate?? The basement with no grow lights on it the winter (10 degrees) would be 58 degrees and in the summer (85 degrees) the basement would be 75+ degrees.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
I have similar issues but my basement is mostly underground and foundation is thick fieldstone; stays cool for the most part but when I run the a/c in the dead of the summer heat here in New England it can actually get warmer down there than the rest of the house...
It is not necessarily a bad thing and those temps do not sound too bad but definitely makes your a/c unit work overtime. I suggest changing out the duct filter every 6 mo.....

Do you have ducted vents that exchange the air in the basement; near the grow area? Do you ever run a dehumidifier in the basement?
 
Boatguy

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
Meast21 said:
You're central air on non-stop almost?
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I only have window ac's. Without them, upstairs is 7 to 10 degrees above outdoor temps.
It is on the top of my honey do list. I have no insulation in the walls, and the attic and floors only have 2 or 3 inch insulation
 
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Meast21

Well-Known Member
Richard Drysift said:
I have similar issues but my basement is mostly underground and foundation is thick fieldstone; stays cool for the most part but when I run the a/c in the dead of the summer heat here in New England it can actually get warmer down there than the rest of the house...
It is not necessarily a bad thing and those temps do not sound too bad but definitely makes your a/c unit work overtime. I suggest changing out the duct filter every 6 mo.....

Do you have ducted vents that exchange the air in the basement; near the grow area? Do you ever run a dehumidifier in the basement?
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I have too big vents that come off the furnace so when the central air is on its on. I close them off in the winter.... Yeah the dehumidifier is literally on 24/7 and keeps the humidity around 50-52%. If I didn't have one the humidity would be over 95%.
 
TreeFarmerCharlie

TreeFarmerCharlie

Well-Known Member
Boatguy said:
I only have window ac's. Without them, upstairs is 7 to 10 degrees above outdoor temps.
It is on the top of my honey do list. I have no insulation in the walls, and the attic and floors only have 2 or 3 inch insulation
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My wife gets on me every year to put the window AC in. I would go all year without it, if she would let me, because I just like to have windows open in the summer. Ceiling fans are underrated :bigjoint:
 
Boatguy

Boatguy

Well-Known Member
TreeFarmerCharlie said:
My wife gets on me every year to put the window AC in. I would go all year without it, if she would let me, because I just like to have windows open in the summer. Ceiling fans are underrated :bigjoint:
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I have a whole house fan, that i love. But this time of year it only draws in pollen
 
Dreaming1

Dreaming1

Well-Known Member
It can be several things.
If it is new house for you and you don't know how it ran last year, or If it is older ac, it may need service. Small leak of refrigerant over time leads to it not having enough to really work and then it runs all the time. If it is leaking, can be filled. Will need replaced if bad leak.
If it is new house/ac for you, the central unit may not be the correct size for the volume of air needing treated. You need the tonnage of your ac components (inside and outside boxes) and the fan tonnage of furnace if it is gas heat. Need to be matched in size. Like 4 ton outside and 4 ton inside and fan that supplies 4 tons of air. Whew.... You need 1 ton to cool 400-500 (450) sq ft.
Take sq ft of house, divide by 450, and that is the size of ac you need.
You also need insulation. Without it, heat is getting into space faster than it can be removed.
If you are growing on basement, vent outside. Why would your basement be hot?
If you have electric heat, you could be running ac, but have heat strips still being powered and they would be adding heat. You would need to replace the component controlling those if that is case.
 
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Meast21

Well-Known Member
In the winter my furnace is barely on from Dec to End of March. Basement temps of mid to upper 60's rise to the main level.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
Meast21 said:
I have too big vents that come off the furnace so when the central air is on its on. I close them off in the winter.... Yeah the dehumidifier is literally on 24/7 and keeps the humidity around 50-52%. If I didn't have one the humidity would be over 95%.
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Yeah a dehumidifier raises temps slightly but also dries the air. I also had two big vents in the basement; one was air intake the other for output. I basically closed the intake off permanently; removed the vent and plugged up with plywood and heat tape which helps push more air up to the main floor. It still gets slightly warmer in the basement as a result but I was more concerned about delivering cooler air to the living spaces than for the grow areas. Thinking all you can really do besides something like this is upgrade to a larger compressor and/or blow in insulation. If you can maintain temps under 80 deg F with lights on in the grow areas the plants should be fine.
 
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Meast21

Well-Known Member
Richard Drysift said:
Yeah a dehumidifier raises temps slightly but also dries the air. I also had two big vents in the basement; one was air intake the other for output. I basically closed the intake off permanently; removed the vent and plugged up with plywood and heat tape which helps push more air up to the main floor. It still gets slightly warmer in the basement as a result but I was more concerned about delivering cooler air to the living spaces than for the grow areas. Thinking all you can really do besides something like this is upgrade to a larger compressor and/or blow in insulation. If you can maintain temps under 80 deg F with lights on in the grow areas the plants should be fine.
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I grow DWC so air temp is gonna be 2 degrees higher than rez temps, bc the rez sits on the basement floor. I flirt with bacteria in my rez once in a while bc of the temps around 78 degrees.
 
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